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By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The Trump administration said on Monday it is taking steps to expedite the use of counter-drone systems to address growing threats.
Several US agencies including the Transportation, Pentagon, Energy and Justice departments have signed a memo to evaluate counter-drone technologies and quickly deploy them safely to protect aviation safety and address national security concerns.
Senior Federal Aviation Administration official Liam McKenna told Reuters the agency has approved over 1,000 coordinations with the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department on counter-drone deployments.
McKenna said the FAA was moving to quickly test counter-drone systems and understand their capabilities before a federal agency uses them. “We’re very familiar with them from day one when they are ready,” McKenna said. “There’s many systems that some of the security agencies are considering using that we’ve seen before and we can turn around the process in 24 hours.”
Last month, the FAA said it was barring unauthorized drones along the entire US border with Mexico. The temporary flight restriction bars any unauthorized drone activity up to 400 feet (122 m) above ground level and extends 1 nautical mile north of the US-Mexico border.
In April, the FAA and Pentagon signed an agreement allowing the government’s use of a high-energy laser counter-drone system along the southern US border with Mexico to address drone threats.
The Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the US-Mexico border each month. US security officials have increasingly expressed alarm about the use of drones by Mexican cartels to drop drug packages or surveil trafficking routes.
In February, the FAA said it would halt all flights for 10 days at the El Paso, Texas, airport because of the use of the Pentagon laser system by Customs and Border Protection without completion of an FAA safety review. CBP is part of the Homeland Security Department.
The FAA lifted the El Paso shutdown order after about eight hours following the White House’s intervention.
The US military days later shot down a CBP drone with the laser-based system, leading the FAA to expand an area in which flights were barred around Fort Hancock, Texas.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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